European Parliament limits antibiotics in livestock

Beginning in 2022, farmers will no longer be allowed to administer antibiotics to their animals. The European Parliament has decided to counter the advance of resistant superbugs.

In Europe, a cow uses on average more antibiotics than a human being. Medicines are not only used in breeding as a treatment in case of illness, but they are also used for preventive purposes on a large scale and in a mixture, for example in the animal feed.

Scientists have been warning for some time that these practices stimulate the development of bacteria resistant to any form of treatment. Every year, such super bacteria cost the lives of more than 20,000 people in the European Union.

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To remedy this problem, the European Parliament has adopted new rules prohibiting the use of human antibiotics for breeding. and restrict the use of non-prescription drugs. The new rules will come into effect in 2022.

"We are very pleased that our long struggle against the contribution of breeding to resistance has finally borne fruit," said Molly Scott Cato, European Greens. "Antibiotic resistance is a huge risk to human and animal health and threatens us all.By prohibiting systematic preventative use and reserving certain variants of antibiotics to humans, we can make sure that these drugs remain effective when we need them. "